1.
George Edward Alcorn Jr.
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George Edward Alcorn, Jr. is an American physicist and inventor who worked primarily for IBM and NASA. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2015, Alcorn was born on March 22,1940, to George and Arletta Dixon Alcorn in Indianapolis, Indiana. Alcorn received an academic scholarship to Occidental College in Los Angeles. He received his degree with honors while earning eight letters in basketball and football, Alcorn earned a Master of Science in Nuclear Physics in 1963 from Howard University, after nine months of study. During the summers of 1962 and 1963, he worked as an engineer for the Space Division of North American Rockwell. He was involved with the analysis of launch trajectories and orbital mechanics for Rockwell missiles, including the Titan I and II, the Saturn

2.
Patricia Bath
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Patricia Era Bath is an American ophthalmologist, inventor, and academic. She has broken ground for women and African Americans in a number of areas, before Bath, no black person had served as a resident in ophthalmology at New York University and no black woman had ever served on staff as a surgeon at the UCLA Medical Center. Bath is the first African-American woman doctor to receive a patent for a medical purpose, the holder of four patents, she also founded the company of the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness in Washington, D. C. Born on November 4,1942 in Harlem, Manhattan, Bath is the daughter of Rupert and her father, an immigrant from Trinidad, was a newspaper columnist, a merchant seaman and the first black man to work for the New York City Subway as a motorman. Her father inspired her love for culture and encouraged Bath to explore different cultures and her mother descended from African slaves. She decided to be a homemaker while her children were young, raised in Harlem, Bath struggled with sexism, racism, and poverty though she was encouraged academically by her parents. It was evident by Baths teachers that she was a gifted student, with the help of a microscope set she was given as a young child, Bath knew she had a love for math and science. Bath attended Charles Evans Hughes High School where she excelled at such a rapid pace causing her to get a diploma in just two and a half years, growing up, Bath always battled with sexism, racism and poverty. It was hard for her there were no black physicians that she knew of while she was growing up. She grew up in a black community where blacks were not accepted into many medical schools. It was also not easy for her to go to school since her family did not have the funds for it. The head of the program realized the significance to her findings during the research. In 1960, still a teenager, Bath won the Merit Award of Mademoiselle magazine for her contribution to the project, Bath received her Bachelor of Arts in chemistry from Manhattans Hunter College in 1964. She relocated to Washington, D. C. to attend Howard University College of Medicine, during her time at Howard, she was president of the Student National Medical Association and received fellowships from the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Mental Health. Bath interned at Harlem Hospital Center, subsequently serving as a fellow at Columbia University and she determined that, as a physician, she would help address this issue. She persuaded her professors from Columbia to operate on patients at Harlem Hospital Center. Bath pioneered the discipline of community ophthalmology, a volunteer-based outreach to bring necessary eye care to underserved populations. She served her residency in ophthalmology at New York University from 1970 to 1973, in 1978, Bath co-founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness, for which she served as president

3.
Henry Blair (inventor)
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Henry Blair was the second African American inventor to receive a patent. He was born in Glen Ross, Maryland, United States in 1807 and his first invention was the Seed-Planter, patented October 14,1834, which allowed farmers to plant more corn using less labor in a smaller amount of time. On August 31,1836 he obtained a patent for a cotton planter. This invention worked by splitting the ground with two blades which were pulled along by a horse. A wheel-driven cylinder followed behind which dropped the seed into the newly plowed ground, Blair had been a successful farmer for years and developed the inventions as a means of increasing efficiency in farming. In the patent records, Blair is listed as a colored man, Blair was illiterate, therefore he signed his patents with an x. It is not known if Blair was a freedman or not, at the time that his patents were granted United States patent law allowed both freed and enslaved people to obtain patents. In 1857 this law was challenged by a slave-owner who claimed that he owned all the fruits of the slaves labor including his slaves inventions and this resulted in the change of the law in of jay 1858 which stated that slaves were not citizens and therefore could not hold patents. After the American Civil War, in 1871, the law was changed to grant all men patent rights, the patent text and drawings for the Seed-Planter from Today in Science. The patent text for the Cotton-Planter from Today in Science

4.
Otis Boykin
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Otis Bobby Boykin was an American inventor and engineer. Otis Frank Boykin was born in 1920 in Dallas, Texas and his mother Sarah was a maid, who died when Otis was only a year old, of heart failure, which inspired him to make the control unit. His father Walter was a carpenter, who became a minister. Otis Boykin attended Booker T. Washington High School in Dallas and he attended Fisk University on a scholarship and worked as a laboratory assistant at the universitys nearby aerospace laboratory. He was discovered and mentored by Dr. Denton Deere, an engineer and he graduated from Fisk University in 1941 and got a job as a laboratory assistant, testing automatic aircraft controls. In 1944, he moved on to work for the P. J. Nilsen Research Labs in Illinois, shortly thereafter, he started his own company, Boykin-Fruth Inc. The firm Boykin-Fruth, Inc. would collaborate on a number of projects, one of his early inventions was an improved wire resistor, which had reduced inductance and reactance, due to the physical arrangement of the wire. Other notable inventions include a variable used in guided missiles. Boykins most famous invention was likely a control unit for the heart pacemaker. The device essentially uses electrical impulses to maintain a regular heartbeat, Boykin died of a heart failure in Chicago in 1982. List of African-American inventors and scientists Otis Boykin from the Black Inventors On-Line Museum

5.
George Robert Carruthers
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George Robert Carruthers is an African-American inventor, physicist, and space scientist. He has lived most of his life in Washington, DC, from a young age he showed an interest in science and astronomy. He grew up in the South Side of Chicago where at the age of 10 he built his first telescope, despite his natural aptitude, he did not perform well in school at a young age, earning poor grades in math and physics. Despite his poor grades he won three separate science fair awards during this time and he now works with NRL’s community outreach organization, and as such helps support several educational activities in the sciences in the Washington D. C. area. His work on ultraviolet spectrums and other types of astronautical tools helped him earn the Black Engineer of the Year award, of which he was one of the first 100 people to receive. His work has also used by NASA, and in 1972 he was one of two naval research laboratory persons whose work culminated in the camera/spectrograph which was put on the moon in April 1972. He is perhaps best known for his work with the spectrograph that showed incontrovertible proof that molecular hydrogen exists in the interstellar medium, George Robert Carruthers was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on October 1,1939, and grew up in South Side, Chicago. His father was a engineer and his mother was a homemaker. The family lived in Milford, Ohio, until Carruthers father died suddenly, at an early age George developed an interest in physics, which his father encouraged. Also as a child, he enjoyed visiting Chicago museums, libraries, later he became a member of the Chicago Rocket Society and various science clubs. In 1957, he earned his high school diploma from Englewood High School and this was the same year that the Russians launched the first Sputnik. After high school he entered to the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois and he also did his graduate work at the University of Illinois earning his masters degree in nuclear engineering in 1962 and his Ph. D. in aeronautical and astronomical engineering in 1964. While conducting his studies, Carruthers worked as researcher and teaching assistant studying plasma. By 1964, Carruthers began employment for the U. S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, two years later, Carruthers invented the first moon-based observatory, the Far Ultraviolet Camera/Spectrograph, which was used in the Apollo 16 mission. Later on in 1986, one of Carruthers inventions captured an image of Halleys Comet. In 1991, he invented a camera that was used in the Space Shuttle Mission, during the summers of 1996 and 1997 he taught a course in Earth and Space Science for D. C. He also helped develop a series of videotapes on Earth and Space science for high-school students, since 1983 he has been Chairman of the Editing and Review Committee and Editor, Journal of the National Technical Association. Since 2002, Carruthers has been teaching a course in Earth

6.
George Washington Carver
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George Washington Carver, was an American botanist and inventor. The exact day and year of his birth are unknown, he was born into slavery in Missouri, either in 1861, Carvers reputation is largely based on his promotion of alternative crops to cotton, such as peanuts and sweet potatoes. He wanted poor farmers to grow alternative crops both as a source of their own food and as a source of products to improve their quality of life. The most popular of his 44 practical bulletins for farmers contained 105 food recipes using peanuts and he spent years developing and promoting numerous products made from peanuts, none were commercially successful. He was also a leader in promoting environmentalism and he received numerous honors for his work, including the Spingarn Medal of the NAACP. In an era of high racial polarization, his fame reached beyond the black community. He was widely recognized and praised in the community for his many achievements and talents. In 1941, Time magazine dubbed Carver a Black Leonardo, Carver was born into slavery in Diamond Grove, Newton County, near Crystal Place, now known as Diamond, Missouri, possibly in 1864 or 1865, though the exact date is not known. His master, Moses Carver, was a German American immigrant who had purchased Georges parents, Mary and Giles, from William P. McGinnis on October 9,1855, Carver had 10 sisters and a brother, all of whom died prematurely. When George was only an old, he, a sister. Georges brother, James, was rushed to safety from the kidnappers, the kidnappers sold the slaves in Kentucky. Moses Carver hired John Bentley to find them, but he located only the infant George, Moses negotiated with the raiders to gain the boys return, and rewarded Bentley. After slavery was abolished, Moses Carver and his wife Susan raised George and they encouraged George to continue his intellectual pursuits, and Aunt Susan taught him the basics of reading and writing. Black people were not allowed at the school in Diamond Grove. There was a school for black children 10 miles south in Neosho, when he reached the town, he found the school closed for the night. He slept in a nearby barn, by his own account, the next morning he met a kind woman, Mariah Watkins, from whom he wished to rent a room. When he identified himself as Carvers George, as he had done his whole life, she replied that from now on his name was George Carver. George liked Mariah Watkins, and her words, You must learn all you can, then go out into the world and give your learning back to the people

7.
John Dabiri
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John Oluseun Dabiri, is an American biophysicist, professor of aeronautics and bioengineering, currently at the Civil & Environmental Engineering department at Stanford University. He was formerly dean at the California Institute of Technology and he is best known for his research of the hydrodynamics of jellyfish propulsion and the design of a vertical-axis wind farm adapted from schooling fish. In 2010, Dabiri was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship for his engineering work. He established the Caltech Field Laboratory for Optimized Wind Energy in 2011, bloomberg Businessweek magazine listed him among its 2012 Technology Innovators. Dabiris parents are Nigerian immigrants, who settled in Toledo, Ohio, Dabiris father was a mechanical engineer who taught math at a community college. His mother, a computer scientist, raised three children and started a development company. It was watching his father, who would occasionally do engineering work on the side, educated at a small Baptist high school, where he graduated first in his class in 1997, Dabiri was accepted by Princeton, the only university he had applied to. He was primarily interested in rockets and jets, and spent two summers doing research that included work on helicopter design. The summer after his year, he accepted a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship in Aeronautics at Caltech. The summer project on the created by a swimming jellyfish enticed him to the growing field of biomechanics. Dabiri returned to Caltech for graduate school after graduating Princeton with a BSE summa cum laude and he was a finalist for both the Rhodes Scholarship and the Marshall Scholarship. He has been awarded NSF research grants eight times in five different fields and he is currently a highly regarded professor at Stanford University. Jellyfish tend to be very efficient when they swim, which means that on an amount of energy they can go further than many other animals can. As one of the simplest multicellular organisms, jellyfish contract cells to generate jet forces, by mathematically analyzing the fluid vortex rings that form as a result of the contraction, Dabiri was able to model the formation of optimal vortex rings. Divers use a laser and optics system that illuminates the flow field, the technique allows for refinement and testing of previous models for vortex formation. The wind energy industry is scaling to larger and larger blades and his FLOWE center, with 24 close vertical axis turbines, is his step towards more economical harvesting of wind energy. Noting that there is constructive interference in the wakes of schooling fish. His models of the extraction mechanism are applicable to the design and evaluation of unsteady aero- and hydrodynamic energy conversion systems

8.
Juan E. Gilbert
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Juan E. Gilbert is an American computer scientist, researcher, inventor, and educator. In honor of both his accomplishments and his service to the university, Gilbert was awarded the first Presidential Endowed Chair at Clemson University on November 9,2012. In 2014, Dr. Dr. Gilbert is the first African American chair of the Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering at the University of Florida. University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio,2000 Dissertation, Arthur, An Intelligent Tutoring System with Adaptive Instruction Advisor, Chia-Yung Han M. S. University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio,1995 B. S. Richard A. Tapia Achievement Award for Scientific Scholarship, Civic Science, federal Communications Commission Chairmans Award for Advancement in Accessibility,2012. Named one of the 2012 The Root 100 Black Influencers and Achievers, National Center for Women in IT Undergraduate Research Mentoring Award,2012. Hamilton, Ohio Booker T. Washington Community Center Academic Excellence Award,2012, miami University Bishop Medal Alumni Award,2012. February 2012 Named “Dr. Juan Gilbert Month” by Hamilton, Ohio City Council, recipient of the Hamilton, Ohio City Council Key to the City,2012. Council for Advancement and Support of Education District III Grand Award Winner for Audiovisual Communication, “ Prime III, The world’s first all-accessible, recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring, National Science Foundation. Clemson University Board of Trustees 2011 Award for Faculty Excellence, fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2011–present. Named 1 of the 50 Most Important African Americans in Technology, Academic Keys Who’s Who in Sciences Academia. Clemson University Board of Trustees 2010 Award for Faculty Excellence, University of Florida, University of Florida home page. HCC Lab, The Human-Centered Computing Lab at the University of Florida, Juan E. Gilbert, Ph. D. Juan E. Gilbert, Ph. D. home page. AADMLSS, African-American Distributed Multiple Learning Styles System, Applications Quest, LLC, Applications Quest, LLC. Prime III, Prime III, One Machine, One Vote for Everyone

9.
Kerrie Holley
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Kerrie Louis Holley is an American software architect, author, researcher, consultant, and Inventor and Optum Technologys first Technical Fellow. Holley is currently retired from IBM Fellow, Holley served as Vice President and CTO at Cisco for a total of seven years. Holley continues to advocate for education and he currently serves as an adviser for the College of Computing and Digital Media at DePaul University. Born in 1954, Holley was raised by his grandmother on Chicagos south side. While never having met his father and living in a marked by poverty and gang activity, Holley defied social odds by channeling his love for math. He became a student at the Sue Duncan Children’s Center in 1961 where he was tutored in math, as he excelled in the program, he became a tutor at the Center, later tutoring former United States Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan and actor Michael Duncan Clarke. Holley joined IBM in 1986 as an Advisory Systems Engineer, in 1990 he became an analytics consultant with IBM’s consulting group, now called IBM Global Business Services. For his work Holley was recognized as an IBM Fellow, Holley is a co-patent owner of the industry’s first SOA method and SOA maturity model, which helps companies develop SOA-based applications and infrastructures. In 2016 he joined Optum Technology reporting to the Chief Information Officer of UnitedHealth Group, accountable for providing visionary technology direction across their enterprise, prior to this role, in 2015 he joined Cisco to advance their software portfolio in analytics and software automation. Holley is a Fellow in the Thomas J. Watson Research Center focused on business services. Previously, he served as a CTO for IBM Global Business Services, in 2006 he was named an IBM Fellow, the Company’s highest technical leadership position. The Fellows program, founded by Thomas J. Watson in 1962, Technical abilities considered are, The criteria for appointment are stringent and take into account only the most significant technical achievements. Appointment as an IBM Fellow, is made by the Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, since 1963,217 IBM Fellows have been appointed. Of these,73 are active employees, in November 2010 Holley’s first book 100 SOA Questions, Asked and Answered was published. The book describes how enterprises can adopt service-oriented architecture and his next book Is Your Company Ready for Cloud, co-authored with Pam Isom, was released in 2012. He is widely published in the field and a sought after speaker and consultant in SOA. Holley is a co-patent owner of the industrys first SOA development method and first SOA maturity model. The maturity model helps enterprises assess where they are on the road to adopting a Service-Oriented Architecture,100 SOA Questions, Asked and Answered. Articles, a selection, Channabasavaiah, Kishore, Kerrie Holley, crawford, C. H. Bate, G. P. Cherbakov, L. Holley, K. & Tsocanos, C

10.
Frederick McKinley Jones
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Frederick McKinley Jones was an African-American inventor, entrepreneur, winner of the National Medal of Technology, and inductee of the National Inventors Hall of Fame. His innovations in refrigeration brought great improvement to the transportation of perishable goods. Jones was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on May 17,1893 After he was orphaned at the age of nine, he was raised by a priest in Kentucky. Jones left school after 6th grade and left the rectory to return to Cincinnati at age 11 and he boosted his natural mechanical ability and inventive mind with independent reading and study. In 1912, Jones moved to Hallock, Minnesota, where he worked as a mechanic on a 50, 000-acre farm. After service with the U. S. Army in World War I, Jones returned to Hallock, while employed as a mechanic, Jones taught himself electronics and he also invented a device to combine sound with motion pictures. This attracted the attention of Joseph A. Numero of Minneapolis, Minnesota, around 1935, Jones designed a portable air-cooling unit for trucks carrying perishable food, and received a patent for it on July 12,1940. Numero sold his movie sound equipment business to RCA and formed a new company in partnership with Jones, portable cooling units designed by Jones were especially important during World War II, preserving blood, medicine, and food for use at army hospitals and on open battlefields. During his life, Jones was awarded 61 patents, forty were for refrigeration equipment, while others went for portable X-ray machines, sound equipment, and gasoline engines. In 1991, The National Medal of Technology was awarded to Joseph A. Numero, president George Bush presented the awards posthumously to their widows at a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden. Jones was the first African American to receive the award and he died of lung cancer in Minneapolis in 1961. He was inducted into the Minnesota Inventors Hall of Fame in 1977, patent 2,163,754 was issued on June 27,1939 – Ticket dispensing machine. Patent D132,182 was issued on April 28,1942 – Design for air conditioning unit, patent 2,336,735 was issued on December 14,1943 – Removable cooling units for compartments. Patent 2,337,164 was issued on December 21,1943 – Means for automatically stopping and starting gas engines, patent 2,376,968 was issued on May 29,1945 – Two-cycle gas engine. Patent 2,417,253 was issued on March 11,1947 – Two-cycle gas engine, patent 2,475,841 was issued on July 12,1949 – Automatic refrigeration system for long-haul trucks. Patent 2,475,842 was issued on July 12,1949 – Starter generator, patent 2,475,843 was issued on July 12,1949 – Means operated by a starter generator for cooling a gas engine. Patent 2,477,377 was issued on July 26,1949 – Means for thermostatically operating gas engines, patent 2,504,841 was issued on April 18,1950 – Rotary compressor. Patent 2,509,099 was issued on May 23,1950 – System for controlling operation of refrigeration units, patent D159,209 was issued on July 4,1950 – Design for air conditioning unit

11.
Lewis Howard Latimer
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Lewis Howard Latimer was an African American inventor and draftsman. Lewis Howard Latimer was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, on September 4,1848, George Latimer had been the slave of James B. George Latimer ran away to freedom in Boston, Massachusetts, in October 1842, along with his wife Rebecca, eventually funds were raised to pay Gray $400 for the freedom of George Latimer. Lewis Latimer joined the U. S. Navy at the age of 15 on September 16,1863, and served as a Landsman on the USS Massasoit. After receiving a discharge from the Navy on July 3,1865, he gained employment as an office boy with a patent law firm, Crosby Halstead and Gould. He learned how to use a set square, ruler and other tools, later, after his boss recognized his talent for sketching patent drawings, Latimer was promoted to the position of head draftsman earning $20.00 a week by 1872. He married Mary Wilson Lewis on November 15,1873, in Fall River and she was born in Providence, Rhode Island, the daughter of William and Louisa M. Lewis. The couple had two daughters, Emma Jeanette and Louise Rebecca, Lewis Howard Latimer died on December 11,1928, in Flushing, Queens, New York City at the age of 80. In 1874, he co-patented an improved system for railroad cars called the Water Closet for Railroad Cars. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell employed Latimer, then a draftsman at Bells patent law firm, in 1879, he moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut, with his brother William, his mother Rebecca, and his wife Mary. Other family members, his brother George A. Latimer and his wife Jane, Lewis was hired as assistant manager and draftsman for the U. S. Electric Lighting Company, a company owned by Hiram Maxim, a rival of Thomas A. Edison, Latimer received a patent in January 1881 for the Process of Manufacturing Carbons, an improved method for the production of carbon filaments used in lightbulbs. The Edison Electric Light Company in New York City hired Latimer in 1884, as a draftsman, Latimer is credited with an improved process for creating a carbon filament at this time, which was an improvement on Thomas Edisons original paper filament, which would burn out quickly. When that company was combined in 1892 with the Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric, in 1911 he became a patent consultant to law firms. Latimer is an inductee of the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his work on electric filament manufacturing techniques, the Latimer family house is on Latimer Place in Flushing, Queens. It was moved from the location to a nearby small park. Latimer was a member of the Flushing, New York. A set of apartment houses in Flushing are called Latimer Gardens,56 in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, is named Lewis H. Latimer School in Latimers honor

12.
Frederick J. Loudin
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Frederick Jeremiah Loudin was the leader of the Loudin Jubilee Singers. His commanding presence and ambitious personality caused him to emerge as an unofficial spokesperson during the four years he toured with them and he later became internationally famous as the leader of his own brand of Jubilee Singers, the Loudin Jubilee Singers, who toured internationally. Their world tour took 6 years to complete and was the first of its kind, Loudin was born to free parents in Charlestown, Ohio, circa 1836. Frederick excelled in his studies and was eligible for a privileged seat in the class. Loudin continued to show promise as a student and in his late teens began apprenticing for a printer. When asked to take over the department of the abolitionist newspaper for which he worked. Discouraged when he discovered that other white printers were unwilling to do business with him, the racism he experienced extended beyond school and work. In the Methodist church he had joined in Ravenna, Loudin was prohibited from singing in the choir and this was especially disappointing since Loudin, who had descended from a family of musicians, was gifted with a beautiful voice. This experience discouraged him from pursuing an education in music. While in his early 20s, Loudin moved to Pittsburgh where he met, four years later, the couple moved to Memphis. Music played a part in Loudins life, teaching, learning the organ. When a friend told him about the Jubilee Singers, he wrote to George White, White, who was looking for a baritone, came to Memphis to hear Loudin sing. He invited him to join his choir, Loudin, the oldest member of the Jubilee Singers, forged a strong relationship with George White over the next few years while touring Europe. A bitter rival of Ella Sheppard, he fell out with Erastus Milo Cravath, Fisk’s president, over the Jubilees’ rights to rest. After White was injured while directing the troupe at Chautauqua, New York, in 1884 Loudin launched a six-year world tour. As a group now composed of and run by African Americans. Loudin led his choir to England, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, China, Japan, after returning to his hometown of Ravenna, Ohio and building his family a house, Loudin continued to tour with his troupe for the next twelve years. In addition to meeting the demands required by his career as a singer and choir director, Loudin somehow found time for political, in the 1890s, after returning from his world tour, Loudin became the owner of two shoe manufacturing companies and patented two inventions

13.
Annie Malone
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Annie Minerva Turnbo Malone was an American businesswoman, inventor and philanthropist. In the first three decades of the 20th century, she founded and developed a large and prominent commercial and educational enterprise centered on cosmetics for African-American women, Annie Minerva Turnbo was born in southern Illinois, the daughter of enslaved Africans Robert and Isabella Turnbo. After traveling down the Ohio River, she found refuge in Metropolis, Illinois, there Annie Turnbo was later born, the tenth of eleven children. Annie Turnbo was born on a farm near Metropolis in Massac County, orphaned at a young age, Annie attended a public school in Metropolis before moving to Peoria to live with her older sister Ada Moody in 1896. There Annie attended high school, taking particular interest in chemistry, however, due to frequent illness, Annie was forced to withdraw from classes. While out of school, Annie grew so fascinated with hair and hair care that she often practiced hairdressing with her sister, with expertise in both chemistry and hair care, Turnbo began to develop her own hair care products. At the time, many women used goose fat, heavy oils, soap, or bacon grease to straighten their curls, by the beginning of the 1900s, Turnbo moved with her older siblings to Lovejoy, now known as Brooklyn, Illinois. She named her new product “Wonderful Hair Grower” To promote her new product and her products and sales began to revolutionize hair care methods for all African Americans. In 1902, Turnbo moved to a thriving St. Louis, as part of her marketing, she gave away free treatments to attract more customers. In 1902 she married Nelson Pope, the couple divorced in 1907, on April 28,1914, Annie Turnbo married Aaron Eugene Malone, a former teacher and religious book salesman. Turnbo Malone, by then well over a million dollars. Due to the demand for her product in St. Louis. She also launched an advertising campaign in the black press, held news conferences, toured many southern states. One of her agents, Sarah Breedlove Davis, operated in Denver. Poro was a combination of the names of Annie Pope. Due to the growth in her business, in 1910 Turnbo moved to a facility on 3100 Pine Street. In addition to a plant, it contained facilities for a beauty college. It served the African-American community as a center for religious and social functions, the Colleges curriculum addressed the whole student, students were coached on personal style for work, on walking, talking, and a style of dress designed to maintain a solid persona

14.
Elijah McCoy
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Elijah J. McCoy was a Canadian-American inventor and engineer who was notable for his 57 U. S. patents, most having to do with the lubrication of steam engines. Born free in Canada, he returned as a five-year-old with his family to the United States in 1847, Elijah J. McCoy was born free in 1844 in Colchester, Ontario, Canada to George and Mildred McCoy. They were fugitive slaves who had escaped from Kentucky to Canada via helpers through the Underground Railroad, George and Mildred arrived in Colchester Township, Essex, Ontario Canada in 1837 via Detroit. Ten of the children were born in Canada from Alferd to William, based on 1860 Tax Assessment Rolls, land deeds of sale, and the 1870 USA Census it can be determined the George McCoy family moved to Ypsilanti, Washtenaw, Michigan in 1859-60. Elijah McCoy was educated in schools of Colchester Township due to the 1850 Common Schools act which segregated the Upper Canada schools in 1850. At age 15, in 1859, Elijah McCoy was sent to Edinburgh, Scotland for an apprenticeship, after some years, he was certified in Scotland as a mechanical engineer. After his return, he rejoined his family, by this time, the George McCoy family had established themselves on the farm of John and Maryann Starkweather in Ypsilanti. George used his skills of a tobacconist to establish a tobacco, when Elijah McCoy arrived in Michigan, he could find work only as a fireman and oiler at the Michigan Central Railroad. In a home-based machine shop in Ypsilanti, Michigan McCoy also did more highly skilled work, such as developing improvements and he invented an automatic lubricator for oiling the steam engines of locomotives and ships, patenting it in 1872 as Improvement in Lubricators for Steam-Engines. Lubricators were a boon for railroads, as they enabled trains to run faster and more profitably with less need to stop for lubrication, McCoy continued to refine his devices and design new ones,50 of his patents dealt with lubricating systems. After the turn of the century, he attracted notice among his black contemporaries, booker T. Washington in Story of the Negro recognized him as having produced more patents than any other black inventor up to that time. This creativity gave McCoy an honored status in the community that has persisted to this day. He continued to invent until late in life, obtaining as many as 57 patents, most of these were related to lubrication, but others also included a folding ironing board and a lawn sprinkler. Lacking the capital with which to manufacture his lubricators in large numbers, Lubricators with the McCoy name were not manufactured until 1920, near the end of his career. He formed the Elijah McCoy Manufacturing Company to produce his works, historians have not agreed on the importance of McCoys contribution to the field of lubrication. He is credited in some sketches with revolutionizing the railroad or machine industries with his devices. This popular expression, typically meaning the real thing, has been associated with Elijah McCoys oil-drip cup invention, one theory is that railroad engineers looking to avoid inferior copies would request it by name, and inquire if a locomotive was fitted with the real McCoy system. This theory is mentioned in Elijah McCoys biography at the National Inventors Hall of Fame and it can be traced to the December 1966 issue of Ebony in an advertisement for Old Taylor bourbon whiskey, But the most famous legacy McCoy left his country was his name

15.
Thomas Mensah
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Thomas O. Mensah is a Ghanaian born chemical engineer and inventor. His works are in fields relating to the development of fiber optics and he was awarded 7 USA and worldwide patents in fiber optics within a period of six years. In all, he has some 14 patents to his name, on March 20,2015, Mensah was inducted into the USA National Academy of Inventors at their 4th annual conference held at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Thomas Mensah was born in Kumasi, Ghana, Mensah, was a business merchant who shipped cocoa products to chocolate manufacturers in France. As a child, Mensah began learning to read newspapers and attained fluency in the French language early, prior to that, he attended Adisadel College in Cape Coast Ghana. As a result of his fluency in French, he won the National French competition in Ghana, a year later, he graduated with a PhD. Mensah worked at Air Products and Chemicals from 1980 to 1983, in 1983, Mensah joined Corning Glass Works, working in fiber optics research at Sullivan Park, New York. Mensah improved the process through a series of innovations, raising the speed of manufacture to 20 meters per second by 1985. This made the cost of optical fiber comparable to traditional copper cables, Mensah received the Corning Glass Works Individual Outstanding Contributor Award for this work in 1985. His work ultimately raised speed of manufacture above 50 m/s and he is also Chairman of Entertainment Arts Research Inc, a Virtual Reality and Video Game Design Company. This technology developed by Mensah earned him three patents, Mensah is President and CEO of Georgia Aerospace Systems that manufactures nano composite structures used in missiles and aircraft for the US Department of Defense. On February 24,2017 CBS Television News devoted a segment featuring Dr. Mensah for Black History Month titled - The Engineer who revolutionized the Internet, Mensah was elected a Fellow US National Academy of Inventors in 2014. Since early 2016, Mensah has been working to create a Silicon Valley of the South in the US State of Texas and he is also a member of the AIChE100. In November 2015, He received the International Business Leadership Award from the African Leadership Magazine in Atlanta Georgia and he has been profiled in Ebony Magazine’s edition of October 2006 and Chemical Engineering Progress Magazine’s edition of October 2008, March 2009 and March 2015. He served on the committee in Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1988–1992. He has also published three books, Fiber Optics Engineering in 1987, Superconductor Engineering in 1992 and his autobiography The Right Stuff Comes in Black, Too in 2013. In the first quarter of 2015, the government of the State of Georgia in the USA passed a House Resolution to commend Mensah and his works

16.
Garrett Morgan
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Garrett Augustus Morgan, Sr. was an African American inventor and community leader. He was the subject of a feature in Cleveland, Ohio. He performed his rescue using a hood fashioned to protect his eyes from smoke and this enabled Morgan to lengthen his ability to endure the inhospitable conditions of a smoke-filled room. Other inventions of Morgans include the development of a chemical for hair-straightening, Morgan is also credited as the first African American in Cleveland to own an automobile. He had at least one sibling, a brother Frank, who assisted in the 1916 Lake Erie tunnel rescue, possessing only a sixth-grade education, Morgan moved at the age of 16 to Cincinnati, Ohio, in search of employment. Most of his years were spent working as a handyman for a Cincinnati landowner. Like many American children growing up in the turn of the century, Morgan was privileged enough to hire a tutor and continue his studies while working in Cincinnati. In 1895, he moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he began repairing sewing machines for a clothing manufacturer and this experience with repairing sewing machines was the impetus for Morgans interest in how things work. His first invention, developed during this period, was a fastener for sewing machines. Throughout this period of time, before his first patent in 1912, in 1907, Morgan with nearly a decade of experience with sewing machines, finally opened up his own sewing machine and shoe repair shop. It was the first of several businesses he would own, in 1908, Morgan became more conscious of his heritage and helped found the Cleveland Association of Colored Men. In 1909, he and his wife Mary Anne expanded their business ventures by opening a shop called Morgans Cut Rate Ladies Clothing Store, the shop had 32 employees, and made coats, suits, dresses, and other clothing. Circa 1910 his interest in repairing other peoples inventions waned, the smoke hood was completed circa 1912. He received his patent for it that year as well, the successful invention of the smoke hood precipitated the launch of the National Safety Device Company in 1914. It is unknown if the smoke hood brought him any commercial success, later in life he developed glaucoma and by 1943 was functionally blind. He would have poor health the rest of his life, even so—in ill health and nearly blind—he continued to work on his inventions. One of his last was a cigarette, which used a small plastic pellet filled with water placed just before the filter. He died on July 27,1963 at the age of 86 and is buried at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Morgan experimented with a liquid that gave sewing machine needles a high polish that prevented the needle from scorching fabric as it sewed